North End Business Association
Africville Basin
Postcard Illustration
Synopsis
As one of four featured artists for the North End Business Association's Valentine's Day postcard series, Love Notes From the North End, Nahom Assefa created Africville Basin, a piece rooted in the history of Africville. Once a thriving Black community in North End Halifax, Africville was demolished by the city in the 1960s, an act now widely recognized as rooted in racism, with the city issuing a formal apology in 2010.
Nahom's own connection came from a personal visit to the Africville Museum, where the Bedford Basin's open water offered a quiet escape. Using a painterly, dreamlike style, he depicted the museum's church against the Basin, reclaiming the space on his own terms.
Produced in partnership with the North End Business Association and Wonder'neath Art Society, the postcards were distributed free across cafes and businesses throughout the North End.
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Africville was founded in the mid-1700s by freed Black settlers after the War of 1812, and grew into a full community with its own church, school, and businesses, despite the city denying it basic services for over 150 years. In the 1960s, Halifax demolished the community entirely and displaced its remaining residents, an act now widely recognized as rooted in racism.
Nahom's connection to the site came from a personal visit after a hard day, where the Bedford Basin's open water and the museum's quiet atmosphere offered a real escape. The challenge was capturing that feeling, the pull of a place holding both deep loss and deep calm, in a way that felt honest to both.
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Nahom used a painterly style to give the piece a dreamlike quality, working from an old reference photo of the church with the Bedford Basin behind it. He titled the piece "Africville Basin," a quiet act of reclaiming what was taken from the community in the 1960s, naming the place on his own terms rather than only through its loss.
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The postcard was well received across the neighbourhood with more than 300 copies distributed, with the community grateful for the continued Black representation it brought to North End Halifax.
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Illustration
Painterly Illustration
Cultural Representation
Black Canadian History
Community Engagement
Procreate